UK locks up citizen for reporting on criminal trial

He wasn't even in the courtroom or disrupting the case. He was arrested for reporting on a trial involving Muslims allegedly committing child abuse. It seems the judge ordered him arrested and jailed for a year, and has since been ordering news media in England not to report on his imprisonment.

Another known wolf?

The TSA is still misbehaving

It hasn't been getting much attention in the news, mostly because the news has moved on to all Trump all the time after a long 8 years of refusing to report on anything critical of the government while Obama was in power.

Also, judging by the reaction to #MeToo, people in the news media enjoy getting groped. Or at least are conditioned to accept it without protesting.

Rosenstein calls Congressional oversight of his agency 'extortion'

Following months and months of stonewalling and slow-walking the production of constitutionally-mandated oversight documents, the House Freedom Caucus is drafting articles of impeachment for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein's response was to claim this was "extortion" rather that a more accurate description of a "job performance review." Do you get the feeling that these clowns in the DOJ are waiting until the blue wave takes control of the House and they no longer have to comply with oversight requests? Yes, me too.

"But I can tell you there are people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and I think they should understand by now: The Department of Justice is not going to be extorted," Rosenstein said. "Were going to do what is required by the rule of law and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job."

Anatomy of a political spying operation

The FBI is asked--way back as early as 2015, but who knows? -- to be helpful to the Dems and they agree. What they do is they hire non-government consultants with close Dem ties to do "analytical work" for them, which happens to include total access to NSA data. Advantages? For the Dems, obviously, access to EVERYTHING digital. A gold mine for modern campaign research. For the FBI there's also an advantage. They get to play dumb -- gosh, we didn't know they were looking at all that stuff! They also don't have to falsify anything, like making [stuff] up to "justify" opening a FI [full investigation] on an American citizen and then lying to the FISC to get a FISA on the USPER [US person] and having to continually renew the FISA and lie all over again to the FISC each renewal. And the beauty of it all is, who's ever going to find out? And even if they do, how do you prove criminal intent?

o everything's humming along until a pain in the a** named Mike Rogers at NSA does an audit in 4/2016, just as the real campaign season is about to start. And Rogers learns that 85% of the searches the FBI has done between 12/2015 and 4/2016 have been totally out of bounds. And he clamps down -- no more non-government contractors, tight auditing on searches of NSA data. Oh sh*t! What to do, just give up? Well, not necessarily, but there's a lot more work involved and a lot more fudging the facts.

That's where the sudden need for a FISA warrant came from. Most likely, if the Obama administration (following Mike Roger's audit) had simply dropped the issue, punished the contractors, and let the election happen normally, it would have all been swept under the carpet. Instead, they doubled down, got their FISA warrant under false pretenses, and tried to use it to cover up their past activities and make sure Trump lost.

Did Bill Clinton commit impeachable offenses?

There had been no discussion of the impeachment of a president for over a century until Watergate. Richard Nixon had the authoritarian Truman-Eisenhower view of what a president could do under the cloak of national security, and by the time his overzealous aides had propelled the White House into the crosshairs of heavy Democratic artillery, he suddenly froze and had no idea how to get through it. Reagan blundered for reasons of compassion for the American hostages in Lebanon into the Iran-Contra mess, but it was never an impeachable offense  just the Congress trying to run foreign policy. Reagan was popular and near the end of his term, and his national-security adviser, Admiral John Poindexter, took the bullet. (He was acquitted on appeal.) Bill Clinton didnt commit impeachable offenses either, and was shafted by Republican congressional majorities, but he waged a skillful-public relations campaign, and enough Democratic senators supported him so he could finish his term.

I lived through the Clinton impeachment issue, though I didn't pay much attention during his first presidential election. I favored impeachment at the time, as a Libertarian, based on a number of issues. Obviously, I felt that perjury (the most significant crime he was charged with) was something he was both obviously guilty of and serious enough to at least consider the impeachment process on its face. It boggles my mind that someone nominally on the Republican side who actually lived through that period would say that Bill Clinton didn't commit impeachable offenses. Perjury by government officials absolutely must be an impeachable offense. Why? Otherwise the President and his staff, or the judicial branch and theirs, can lie to Congress with impunity, making a mockery of oversight and public accountability, and blocking Congress and the courts from being able to do their job.

You can argue that it might be politically unwise to use lying about sex (and sexual harassment, under oath in court) as a reason for impeachment. But the crime of perjury is undeniably and necessarily impeachable.

Doom and Gloom on the Economy

The unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent in April, an 18-year low, even as nonfarm payrolls rose by just 164,000, the BLS says.Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected payroll growth of 192,000 and the jobless rate to drop by one-tenth of a percent to 4.0 percent.The closely watched average hourly earnings number rose by 4 cents, equating to a 2.6 percent annualized gain, a shade less than expected.

Notice how the unemployment rate "fell" to "an 18 year low"? This is an unemployment number; low is good. But it's written to sound negative. And payrolls rose by "just" 164,000, while hourly earnings (wages) rose by 4 cents (2.6%), "a shade less than expected".

What makes the Obamas worth hundreds of millions?

Barack and Michelle Obama are raking in the cash, thanks to the influence of a former campaign supporter.

The couple last week signed a creative production deal with Netflix that one entertainment-industry source said could be valued at more than $50&#8201;million.

The contract comes a year after the Obamas inked a joint book deal with Penguin Random House valued in excess of $65&#8201;million. The first of the deals planned books, Michelle Obamas memoir, Becoming, is due out in November.

Ironically, the talks come at a steep price. After a speech at a health-care conference sponsored by Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald in September, Obama reportedly took home $400,000.

In addition to raking in millions, the former first couple has been involved in fund-raising for the Obama Foundation, which is developing a $500 million presidential center and library in Chicago.

They signed a deal with Netflix for $50 million to produce TV shows. What experience and skills do they have producing TV shows? Zero. On the other hand, Obama has experience writing books... or at least having them ghostwritten. Fictional autobiographies, specifically. So Michelle Obama's memoir is at least in a field the Obamas know well. But how many copies of her autobiography do they expect to sell? It's not like Michelle Obama accomplished anything significant while in office.

I'm not saying the government should step in to stop them making money hand over fist. I'm just questioning why people are giving them all that money. Could it be... delayed payment for considerations delivered while office?

Two months before Trump was elected president, Deripaska was in New York as part of Russias United Nations delegation when three FBI agents awakened him in his home; at least one agent had worked with Deripaska on the aborted effort to rescue Levinson. During an hour-long visit, the agents posited a theory that Trumps campaign was secretly colluding with Russia to hijack the U.S. election.

Deripaska laughed but realized, despite the joviality, that they were serious, the lawyer said. So he told them in his informed opinion the idea they were proposing was false. You are trying to create something out of nothing, he told them. The agents left though the FBI sought more information in 2017 from the Russian, sources tell me. Waldman declined to say if Deripaska has been in contact with the FBI since Sept, 2016.

So why care about some banished Russian oligarchs account now?

Two reasons.

First, as the FBI prepared to get authority to surveil figures on Trumps campaign team, did it disclose to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that one of its past Russian sources waived them off the notion of Trump-Russia collusion?

I'm betting they didn't disclose that to the court, meaning a lie by omission. Even if a Russian denial (admittedly a Russian they apparently trust enough to work with to the tune of $25 million, which presents its own ethical and legal issues for Mueller) would not sink such an application, it is a factor that should be weighed by the court, especially with so much weight being placed on Steele's single-source credibility.

Mueller is now vulnerable to a conflict of interest charge in his role as special counsel because of his involvement with Deripaska.

Mueller: Incompetent at Large

Mueller was likely involved in the Whitey Bulger case where 4 innocent men were jailed for murder

Mueller was appointed as FBI director shortly before 9-11 and was absent from his post for 33 days during that time

The FBI missed warnings during that same period that might have led them to catch the hijackers before they struck

Completely botched the anthrax cases, costing a $6 million settlement and a suicide

Boston Marathon bombings also happened on his watch, and the FBI failed to act on multiple tips

While special counsel investigating alleged Russian collusion, failed to ask Wikileaks who provided the emails they leaked, while alleging those emails were leaked by the Russians in collusion with Trump

Raided Trump's personal lawyer Cohen, but the judge (with Clinton-Soros connections) would not allow the prosecutors to review the material themselves. Despite this, the material has been leaking into the media at a breakneck pace, suggesting they did in fact review it

Judge TS Ellis is demanding Mueller document his scope of authority to bring charges against Manafort

Indicted supposed Russian companies that he expected to never appear in court, until they did, and started demanding to see his evidence against them

Formed an alliance with New York AG Schneiderman, who has since resigned over allegations he abused multiple women in what he claims was "role-playing"

Granted immunity to a person who has pled guilty to child pornography charges

Thoughts on incels

Progressivism's promise is to move toward social arrangements that increase the number of winners and diminish the number of losers. But until we achieve a utopia where everyone wins, we'll have to figure out ways to offer relief to the losers. This will require liberals to start taking the plight of people like the incels seriously, and stop penalizing intellectual mavericks like Hanson who have the nerve speak up on their behalf. And it will require conservatives to stop romanticizing an imperfect past and look for viable solutions that don't involve turning back the clock.

"Involuntary celibacy" (in the form of men who want to be in sexual relationships, but for various reasons feel unable to find willing partners) is a real problem. It doesn't justify violence by those men. It does justify consideration of possible solutions, because it's a problem rooted in biology: men want sex and those who are unable to get it will degrade eventually to violence, probably rooted in a biological drive to reproduce by force if no other option is available. That's a real problem that can be addressed by means other than scorning the people who are suffering -- the vast majority of whom have not and will not turn to violence.

The traditional solution to this problem is monogamous marriage. One man per woman, one woman per man, no sex before marriage, strong encouragement both social and economic to get married young, have kids, and stay married.

With the right sort of social pressure, even those charismatically challenged will find themselves with a partner. Maybe not the most desirable, but better than none.

The social fabric of western civilization is like a fence in an empty field. As the saying goes, "I'll let you remove the fence when you can explain why it is there." The left has been busy removing the fences without asking permission.

Intuit severs ties with Gunsite

The way things are going, the gun industry might need to develop its own financial infrastructure. That won't be easy. But the thing is, once you've done it? You're free, and they have no hold on you any more.

Did Oliver North support the assault weapon ban?

If he did, as claimed here, putting him in charge of the National Rifle Association may be a big mistake. On the other hand, people do change their minds. This is the sort of thing it's good to know about before holding a vote.

Paying off Halper

EM drive may not be viable after all?

The German team copied the NASA experiment exactly, piping microwaves into the cavity, using lasers to monitor movement and a spring to measure thrust. The setup did indeed produce thrust, as indicated by the spring. But when the researchers positioned the microwaves so they definitely could ­not produce thrust in the direction of the spring, the drive pushed just as hard. Furthermore, the same degree of thrust remained even after power was cut in half. So clearly, there are other factors at play.

The team suggests that the thrust may actually be produced by an interaction between the cables that power the microwave amplifier and Earths magnetic field. If this is the case, it wont work in space.

This doesn't read like a failure to replicate to me. It seems more like they did replicate the effect, but don't think it's caused by the experimental inputs, and propose an alternative hypothesis. Previous experiments reported the odd behavior with power levels and direction. The only thing new about this experiment (aside from yet another location replicating the basic results) is that they have a new possible explanation for why it does what it does.

Fair enough. If they are right, we understand it a bit more, and it won't work in space. But I'd like to see more experiments conducted to verify their explanation. Because, to borrow a phrase, it still moves.

Supporting my conclusion that Page is the informaant

Page told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Halper rolled his eyes during an encounter in late Summer 2016 when a letter that then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid sent to then-FBI Director James Comey was brought up in conversation. Reid accused Page in the letter of possibly being a Russian agent.

Remember, the FBI doesn't need to actually prosecute the person they put surveillance on. All they need to do is convince a court he might be a Russian agent, and then tell him to get in contact with the people (or someone close to the people) they want to listen to. And the FBI has used Page as an informant before. If they don't mention that to the court, they can use his associations with Russians to suggest he should be spied on. And he then becomes a walking wiretap without even the need to wear a physical wire. If you want to listen to someone's phone calls, just have your patsy Page give their secretary a call. The two-hop rule means you can then evesdrop on the principal.

A broader conspiracy

Again, the name is Stefan Halper, who, as I wrote here last week, was paid a substantial sum by the Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment.

If it was for this work  and it suspiciously looks like it because the payments were made in July and September of 2016 when he was weaseling his way into the campaign  then we know we have the DNI, CIA, DOJ, FBI, Dept. of State and the Defense Department working for Hillary's election and to smear and create a basis for further spying on Trump and his campaign.

That adds the DNI to the list of confirmed agencies involved. And it means that there is going to be a paper trail at the other agencies. How did they justify paying him? What was the work product? Was it accurate, or fraudulent? Who at the CIA (besides, obviously, the person at the top) was involved? Who at the State Department authorized this?

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away..

Facts matter. The FBIs use of Confidential Human Sources (the actual term) is tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country. Attacks on the FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our country. How will Republicans explain this to their grandchildren?

I figure it will go something like this:

"Not so long ago, and not so far away, the Democrats -- some of whom are still alive in prison to this day! -- used the intelligence agencies of the United States in a coup attempt against the legitimately elected President Trump. The agencies involved were the FBI, CIA, NSA, DOJ, and many others. I can see you are puzzled, you don't recognize those names from your civics class? Those agencies are no longer around today; they were disbanded, their buildings demolished, and the earth upon which they had stood was salted, so that nothing would ever grow from their poisoned trees again..."

Why gun violence protection orders are a bad idea

A 70-year-old Vietnam War veteran recently spoke with reporters about an incident earlier this year in which six of his guns were confiscated by authorities in Taberg, New York, after he was incorrectly flagged as mentally defective.

I was guilty until I could prove myself innocent, Don Hall told The Post Standard. They dont tell you why or what you supposedly did.

Hall called the ordeal a bad screw-up.

After several months, Hall finally got back his guns, but not before a great deal of legal battles and red tape that left him feeling frustrated.

Mistakes happen. Police are notoriously unwilling to give people their guns back after a mistake.

Shaken, not stirred

More troubling are Halper's extensive intelligence links. As a dual U.S.-British citizen and his close ties to both British and U.S. intelligence, did he task British assets to spy on Trump?

Was Britain's government a party to this? Did it know about Crossfire Hurricane? Or that Halper was spying on the Trump campaign? If so, it would not be the act of an ally.

We already know British intelligence was involved to some degree, without having any details. We know the head of one of their intelligence agencies resigned shortly after Trump's election, after only a few months on the job. It would be too much of a coincidence for that to not be related.

The House Intel committee is now investigating former SecState Kerry's role in the dossier. Were any of Obama's cabinet officials not involved?

Paying off The Race to win the race

Before resigning to run for Congress, the mayor of Americas fifth-largest city gave a political open-borders ally millions of taxpayer dollars to complete a job in an area it suspiciously has zero experience in. Under the shady deal, the radical La Raza group Promise Arizona (PAZ) will receive $2.4 million from the city of Phoenix to conduct Business Assistance during construction of a light rail extension. Some Phoenix City Hall insiders believe its a payoff by the outgoing mayor, Greg Stanton, to support his upcoming congressional run.

$2.4 million to a racial grievance group ("La Raza" = "The Race") for "business assistance" on a construction project? Yeah, it's a payoff.